Page 172 of The Glittering Edge

Except this is the poltergeist of a powerful witch. Could Giovanni be stronger than other poltergeists? As exceptional in death as he was when alive?

“You knew this would happen,” Giovanni says. “You love that girl too much, and that will only bring you trouble.”

There’s a roar, and then a strange creature—part cat, part darkness—is at Alonso’s side.

“Nimble,” Alonso chokes.

She looks up at him with eyes ringed by double irises. This isn’t the Nimble Alonso knows. It’s the Nimble that saved Alonso the day he brought her back to life. Her body is long and her claws are like knives. Her fur has turned from gold to pitch black.

Nimble roars again and dives for Giovanni, who is caught off guard. He takes a step back, loosening his grip enough that Alonso falls to the ground.

“Keep him busy,” Alonso tells Nimble, and she snaps her jaws in reply. Then he turns back to the Shadow.

All that’s visible now is Anita’s hand. The rest of her has disappeared inside the monster.

Alonso runs directly at the Shadow. He lifts the hand that’s touching the ward in the Primary World, and its residual magic is just strong enough. The Shadow is forced back, out of Alonso’s reach. As it moves, Alonso grabs Anita’s hand and pulls.

After an excruciating moment, she’s free, gasping and dazed.

Alonso’s magic reaches for Anita’s physical body. Words spring into his mind, arranging themselves into an incantation that leaves his lips repeatedly until the sounds melt together.

“New ties, new life, connect the body, bind the soul,” Alonso says over and over again.

Did he speak these words when he brought Nimble back and he doesn’t remember? Have they always been hidden in his mind, locked away until he needed them again?

No. The truth of it swells like a wave, and it’s terrifying.

It’s not the incantation that matters right now. Alonso could speak any words and imbue them with meaning, withmagic, and he would succeed. Because his power is impossible to measure. It can’t be contained by his bones, his muscles, his skin. It’s aching to get out.

This is how Alonso’s magic broke free when he was young. It’s not simply part of him. It’s wild, like a wolf with no master. And if Alonsodoesn’t learn to direct it, to make it bend or go silent, it will do terrible things to everyone around him.

Nothing like learning under pressure.

Alonso rises up, taking the reins of his power, demanding that it listen to the spell and to his intent. His magic flares as if bristling against his authority. But Alonso doesn’t back down, and finally, the spell takes what it needs from him.

The blow is intense enough to knock him on his ass for a decade. He falls to his knees as the spell drains him, but he doesn’t let go of Anita’s hand.

A pure white thread appears, connecting Anita to her body, unseen across the Veil.

“Go!” Alonso shouts, and Anita jumps through the door he opened in the Veil. He’s about to follow her when Nimble cries out.

She was holding Giovanni down with her front paws, but he managed to shift, and he’s sinking his black teeth into her right paw. She cries out again and lets go, and Giovanni launches himself toward the Veil.

He’s going to take Alonso’s body.

Alonso reacts the way he always does when he’s backed into a corner: He uses the last bit of his magic to give Giovanni a magical punch in the face.

The poltergeist flies back, but that second of time is enough. Alonso jumps through Veil. But at the last second, he feels it—a rumble so deep, so painful, that he can’t breathe. And he suddenly can’t fit in his own body…

Because Giovanni made it through. He tried to enter Alonso’s body at the same moment that Alonso did, and they’ve collided.

Alonso tries to push him out, but Giovanni pushes back. Alonso holds his ground and because his body knows him, pieces of himself are snapping into place.

But Giovanni won’t give in. Nimble injured him, and he’s almost weak enough that Alonso can push him out completely…

Until suddenly, Giovanni disappears.

Alonso’s magic grasps around for him, looking for a sign that the poltergeist is still there. But he can’t find him.

---